A Nip and a Nosh

continued

Not exactly the height of romance. Or perhaps it is, if your idea of romance includes a fondness for a glass of very good wine at a very reasonable price. That's what we found on a recent Saturday at the wine bar in the Cranbrook Village Whole Foods.

Whole Foods Market Wine and Beer Bar is a glistening U-shaped counter nestled between the cheese and wine sections. The drinks menu is simple: a couple of beers, including a local one from Arbor Brewing Company, and a selection of wines-several midrange as well as high-end reds and whites, and always a few from Michigan. We splurged-it was, after all, Saturday night-and went for the Bogle Phantom Petite Sirah for $5 and the Ken Wright Chardonnay at $9 for a four-ounce pour. I enjoyed that Wright Chard, but what I really liked was that this is the same wine for which I grudgingly paid $18 a glass on Main Street a few months ago. To go with, we chose cheeses from the dairy case, splurging again with a Jasper Hill Farm Bayley Hazen blue cheese that was a superb little bundle of tanginess, and a sliver of creamy Brillat-Savarin, named for the secular saint of French gastronomy, as well as some fancy crackers (the barkeep set us up with plates and utensils). Although I love a bargain, the overall experience was a little flat with nobody but us at the bar.